The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-20
FOR THE DIAMOND BELT.
1O6 ROUNDS FOUGHT BY SMITH
AND KILRAIN.

Tho Fight Declared a Draw Kilrain
Knocks Smith silly, but He Comes to
the Scratch" and Puts in Some Good
Blows-Both Men Badly Punished
and "Satisfed"-E Round Closed
with a Wrestle.
New Y YoRK, Dec 10.-The following cable
was received at the office of the Police
Gazette this afternoon, dated Vernon
France: Zone hundred and six rounds were
fought in two hours and thirty minutes, and
resulted i'll draw" This refers to the
Kilrain-Smith fight, which was fixed to take
place at o'clock this afternoon on an island
in the river Seine, twenty miles from Rouen.
SMITH KNOCKED SILLY.
LONDON, Dec. 10, 10 p M--The inter
national contest between Jake kilrain, of
Baltimore, and Jenl Smith, of England,
for the diamond belt and the championship
of the world took place on the Island of
st. Pierre, in the River Seine, France,
today, in the presence of about one
hundred persons. There was no
police interference. G. w. Atkinson, ref
cree, performed his duties with satisfaction
to all concerned Fleming and Harding
acted as timekeepers and umpires. The
fight was remarkable for persistent wrest-
ling of the men. In the fourth round
Smith was knocked nearly silly by a terrific
blow on the ear. Though Smith had the
worst of the falls, he fought splendidly un-
der great difficulties, and was as fresh as
Kilrain, when darkness stopped the fight, at
4:45. One hundred and six rounds were
fought, lasting two and a half hours.
Before the fight began odds of three and
four to one were freely lad ON the English
man, but all the betting stopped as the fight
narrowed itself into question of endur
ance. Not once or twice, but many times
it looked like an easy win for Kilrain but
the indomitable pluck of the burly English
man, who invariably came up with a
smile, equalized matters. Not to en-
ter into an elaborate description of each
of the 106 rounds, it may be safely said that
fiercer, fairer fighting has rarely been seen.
There were cries of foul" but foul" was
never seriously claimed by either side. The
seconds were smart in their duty, bringing
their respective men back to their corners,
and the umpires had few difficult points to
settle. Hard hitting and tough work was
the order, with q concluding throw at the
end of each round, of which the long Ameri-
can, who is tough and ugly,
but withal an excellent wrestler,
generally had the best. How this remark
able fight might have terminated, had it
been fought to a finish, il is difficult to say.
Kilrain undoubtedly showed qualities that
even his hackers never dreamed of, and had
rather the best of the fight as they got into
the second hour. On the other hand,
Smiths determined rushes and indomitable
pluck over and over again raised the hopes
of his hackers.
The betting was on Smith at the start,
veering to Kilraiu later. There was much
wrestling instead of fighting. Smith had
the best at the start and forced the fighting.
Kilrain had the advantage in wrestling.
In the eighteenth round Kilrain hit Smith
on.the left ear causing a swelling thesize of
an egg and knocked him down. Kilrains
right eye was closed. The fight varied until
the fifteenth round when Kilran led until
the nineteenth, knocking down Smith three
times and being knocked down him
self once. Smiths ear swelling burst, to
his great relief.
After the nineteenth round Smiths
strength returned, and he held his own. He
had the best of the last six rounds, both
men fighting as quickly and as strongly as
at the start.
The referee ordered that the fight be re-
sumed tomorrow, but later Smith and Kill
rain expressed mutual respect for each
other, swore eternal friendship, agreed to
consider the fight draw, and pledged each
other to fight Sullivan. The general opin-
ion was that the fight was the gamiest
heavy weight fight of the present genera